


Cat

by SoDoRoses (FairyChess)



Series: LAOFT Extras [19]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, How Do I Tag, a story told from the perspective of a fucking CAT because i apparently am just that weird, i really need to reinforce that this is Real Fuckin Weird, non-sapient POV, theres LAMP but its like 2 lines because dizzy is a CAT and doesnt understand human romance yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-15 23:07:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19305703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyChess/pseuds/SoDoRoses
Summary: Cat is cat.Dizzy is… something else.Part of theLove and Other FairytalesVerse





	Cat

**Author's Note:**

> this might be a little hard to read honestly because it starts in a non-sapient POV so fair warning.

Cat iscat.

Cat eats flying things. Cat eats small-fur-creatures. Cat eats cold-scale-creatures.

Cat eats dry not-food, left by two-leggeds in snow-time. Not-food crumbles in Cat mouth. Like rock to dirt to mud.

Two-legged tries to sweet-noises Cat into two-legged house. Cat runs.

Cat will not live in two-legged house. Cat is cat. Cat is not kept.

* * *

Cat is cat.

Two-legged is Not-Cat. Cat does not go to two-leggeds.

This Two-legged smells like smoke-burn-fire. Two-legged pulls Cat with no pulling. Two-legged makes sounds-that-are-not-sounds. Cat follows.

Cat falls sideways. Must be magic-creatures. Cat knows magic-creatures smell.

Not same. Different. Air smells smoke-burn-fire. Fire-two-legged magic.

Many magic-creatures. Many-legged creatures glitter glitter glitter. Magic-creatures make more sounds-that-are-not-sounds.

Fire-Two-legged is here. Hand out. Cat is cat.

Two-legged pulls with no pulling. Cat follows.

Two-legged touches Cat.

And Cat…

Cat is  _not_  a cat.

* * *

Cat does not know how to be Not-A-Cat

Boy is pulling without pulling and Cat is… confused?

Cat does not understand.

Boy fights a water-magic-creature. Cat thinks Boy may be… stupid.

Cat is not sure what stupid means. But Cat thinks Boy is it.

Cat fights the water-magic-creature. Cat is Not-A-Cat but Cat still has Teeth and Claws and Hunting. Water-magic-creature cannot hurt Boy.

Cat does not understand.

But.

Cat  _wants_  to understand.

* * *

Cat is Not-A-Cat. Cat does not know  _what_  Cat is.

Cat was not for two-legged houses. Not-A-Cat… is. Maybe.

Cat goes to the two-legged house and makes loud noises. Boy comes and holds Cat.

Cat… likes? To be held. Cat likes Boy.

Boy still makes sounds-that-are-not-sounds. Cat does not understand them. They prick prick prick like thorns-but-soft and on the inside of Cat.

Boy has a heavy thing. Heavy thing smells like dust. Boy looks at it for a long time. Boy makes sounds to Cat. Cat listens.

Cat thinks… Boy is asking a… question.

What is a question?

Curious. Cat is curious. So is Boy. Boy is curious… about Cat.

_What will I call you?_

Cat is Not-A-Cat now. Cat is something new.

What is Cat called?

_Desdemona?_

This is a good Called. Cat tells Boy so.

Boy is… amused.

_Dizzy, for short._

This is a  _very_ _good_  Called. Cat tells Boy so again.

_Dizzy. Dizzy the cat. Dizzy-cat._

Cat is Called Dizzy. Dizzy was a cat, and is Not-A-Cat.

Dizzy likes Boy. Dizzy wants Boy to be happy forever, so Dizzy makes happy-noises until the sounds-that-are-not-sounds prick warm warm warm.

* * *

Boy is Called Roman. The Old Two-Legged is Called Mamaw. They both make sounds-that-are-not-sounds but Mamaw makes them… on purpose.  _At_  Dizzy. It feels like… a test.

What is a test?

There is another Not-A-Cat, who is The Same but also Not. A flying-thing too big to eat. Big enough to eat  _Dizzy_  which Dizzy… does not like.

Other Not-A-Cat is Called Jax. Jax makes sounds-that-are-not-sounds. Jax makes a  _lot_ of them. Jax makes them while Jax follows Dizzy outside. Jax makes them when Dizzy is inside, through the windows.

Jax. Jax is. Something. Something Dizzy was and is less now but does not have a name for. Dizzy is getting new names for things all the time. Dizzy becomes more  _Not-A-Cat_  all the time.

Dizzy just becomes… More.

* * *

Roman brings home one of the magic-folk. Dizzy is very curious. Roman doesn’t like magic-folk, she thinks, Hunts them like a Cat on two legs. But he brings this one home. He bumps like Dizzy bumps Roman, and smiles, and touches without hurting.

Magic-folk Boy is Called Logan. He seems… afraid of Dizzy. Dizzy wants to see him up close but he runs away.

_Animals are not fond of my presence. I don’t want to distress her._

Distress. Distress is… unhappy. Distress is does-not-like.

Logan is… stupid, maybe. Like Roman. That is okay. Dizzy likes Roman anyway. Roman likes Logan. Dizzy will like Logan, too.

She sneaks up on Logan, because she isn’t a cat anymore but she can still Hunt and Sneak, and she climbs over his shoulder and bumps his face.

He smells like rain and wet and soft dirt and green things. And salt, when she bumps. He makes soft sad noises that are not really sad.

She bumps harder.

There is also a Gold Boy; he is Called Patton. He is soft all over. She thinks he may be soft on the inside too, like he is full of clouds. Clouds look soft but Dizzy has never touched one. She thinks she may climb the sky one day to see.

He is not afraid of Dizzy, but Roman is afraid when Dizzy goes to him.

_I don’t want you having an asthma attack._

Roman says Patton is “allergic to cats” which Dizzy… kind of understands. Cats hurt Patton, somehow in… the parts of him that breath.

But Dizzy is Not-A-Cat. So Patton cannot be allergic. She tries to tell Roman this, but her sounds are just sounds, not sounds-that-are-not-sounds, so he doesn’t understand.

So she just keeps going to Patton. Eventually they understand her.

Dizzy is… frustrated.

* * *

Dizzy goes with Roman to the clearing sometimes. He looks at the magic-folk boy in the casket with strange expressions. He says “I love you” which he says to Dizzy, and to Mamaw, but Dizzy thinks it means something different, here.

He brings Logan and Patton to the clearing, and continues to make strange expressions. Sometimes he makes them  _at_ Logan and Patton. But he does not say the words that go with it. Dizzy wonders why.

* * *

One day Jax makes sounds-that-are-not-sounds and Dizzy listens. Dizzy hears.

_You’re taking your time, aren’t you? Maybe I’m just impatient. Haven’t spoke to another-_

She loses the sounds. But she had them for a moment, and she knows now what Jax is, that she didn’t have a word for before.

Jax is lonely.

Dizzy knows she can’t make the sounds-that-are-not-sounds. She’s tried.

Instead she climbs up and up onto the roof where Jax sits and she cuddles. He has feathers where there is usually fur and he smells unpleasant like Flesh but Dizzy doesn’t mind.

Jax does not makes sounds-that-are-not-sounds or regular sounds. He taps Dizzy’s head with his very sharp beak but Dizzy is not afraid. Jax is family. They are Not-A-Cats together, even if Dizzy is not quite there yet.

* * *

Dizzy makes a sound-that-is-not-a-sound. Dizzy  _speaks_.

Mamaw is doing fire-folk things, mixing mixing mixing many liquids and many things that smell green. Dizzy is trying to tell Mamaw to give Dizzy the one that smells good.

She makes regular sounds, and then she speaks.

“Catnip,”

Dizzy startles herself. She startles Mamaw, too. Mamaw looks down.

“Why am I not surprised that’s the first word outta yer mouth?”

Dizzy is  _very_  startled. She tries to speak again. Only sounds.

“Easy, sugar,” says Mamaw, and Dizzy- Dizzy understands her. She isn’t confused at all. She knows  _exactly_  what Mamaw’s saying.

“You can’t rush it,” says Mamaw, “Be patient,”

Dizzy doesn’t want to be patient. Dizzy wants to  _speak_. She tries to say so. It doesn’t work.

Jax finds her, later. He tells her things in a quiet sad voice.

“May is scared,” he says, “She lost Abby and now she’s afraid of losing Roman. She hasn’t told him. He doesn’t know what you are,”

Dizzy focuses. She strains and strains. She tries to speak, harder than she has ever tried anything.

“What am I?” she asks.

Jax practically glows, fluffing his feathers and hopping back and forth on the roof. Dizzy wants to… laugh at him. Can she laugh? She wants to try.

“We are  _familiars_ ,” says Jax.

“Familiar,” says Dizzy. Jax makes a happy sound, an animal sound, not speaking. Dizzy laughs and it sounds like a laugh, not a cat sound.

“Will you wait to tell Roman?” said Jax, “Until she is ready? It is a hard conversation. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important,”

Dizzy strains again to speak. It takes a long time. What she’s already said made her very tired, and she wants to find a patch of sunlight and sleep for a year.

“I can. Yes,” she says.

Jax leans over and preens her, because he’s a silly bird who doesn’t understand fur. He does the same thing to Mamaw and Roman’s hair sometimes. Dizzy bats his beak, but not mean, and no claws.

“Featherbrain,” she says, and Jax laughs, and laughs, and laughs.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah logan totally cried the first time Dizzy cuddled him because he's SOFT no arguments


End file.
